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Spreading its wings: Axel Oberwelland, winner of this year's European Candy Kettle Club award, recognizes that continued growth for family-owned August Storck KG lies in leveraging the company's mega brands. The key, however, is to do so in a disciplined, market-by-market approach.

Article Excerpt
They're referred to as Storckians, sometimes even called Storckies. With more than 4,500 strong spread out amongst 47 countries, they form the nucleus of Berlin-based August Storck KG, a $1.5-billion, family-owned confectionery business that produces sugar, sugar-flee and chocolate treats.

While some writers might be tempted to tag these employees "Axel's Army," after the company's chairman, ceo and president, Axel Oberwelland, the 40-year-old executive and winner of this year's European Candy Kettle Club award, doesn't see it that way. He simply refers to them as members of the Storck family.

That said, it would be foolish to dismiss them as mere doting aunts or wacky uncles. A disciplined and extremely motivated force, the Storckies have played a critical role in helping Storck evolve from being a national monobrand business into a diversified yet focused global confectionery player.

Although Germany remains the company's home turf--it is after all the world's second largest national confectionery market after the United States--Storck continues to actively pursue growth in established territories such as Austria, France, Denmark, the UK, Holland, Switzerland and Belgium, as well as newly admitted European Union countries such as Poland, the Slovak and Czech Republics, and Hungary.

But it's not just about Europe; the company has ventured well beyond the continent, staking its claim in the United States and Canada in 1989 and the Middle East and Australasia in the late 1990s.

For Oberwelland and his Storckies, that's essentially the challenge the company faces during its next centennial.

"Our goal in these markets is to attain the same kind of position we have in Germany with sugar and chocolate confections," he says. Considering that Storck boasts a 30% share in sugar confectionery volume and a 25% sugar confectionery share in sales there, coupled with a 15% share in chocolate specialty sales, that's no small feat.

To do so, the company has revved up its new product development engine, leveraging the power of its mega-brands to launch non-cannibalizing line extensions while simultaneously penetrating the premium chocolate segment with its innovative Chocolat Pavot debut.

The decision to use the company's existing mega-brands as a springboard for spinoffs was not done without serious discussion and analysis; after all, three generations of brand building by previous Oberwellands--from founder August to grandfather Hugo to father Klaus--is not something that's taken lightly.

"If you look at the top rankings of brands on the German confectionery market, you quickly see that these brands have been there for 10, 20, even 50 years," Axel points out.

"You see the same thing...

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